Development of REM sleep

描述（由申请人提供）：人类婴儿每天睡眠16小时，8小时为快速眼动（REM）睡眠。从出生到青春期，快速眼动睡眠的量急剧减少。我们的总体假设是，如果这种快速眼动睡眠的发育性下降没有发生，那么快速眼动睡眠驱动力可能会终身增加。快速眼动睡眠驱力增加存在于精神分裂症、焦虑症和抑郁症等过度警觉性障碍中，这些疾病具有主要的发育病因学。控制觉醒和睡眠的主要区域是网状激活系统（RAS），而脚桥核（PPN），其胆碱能臂，通过其对各种目标的投射帮助产生REM睡眠。其中一个靶点，蓝核下核（SubC），被认为可以表现出P波，这是一种阵发性的活动波阵面，被认为可以导致从慢波睡眠过渡到REM睡眠。拟议的研究将调查胆碱能输入到SubC的发展，以及PPN在大鼠REM睡眠发育减少期间驱动SubC细胞的能力，这发生在出生后10至30天之间。我们假设P波可能是由间隙连接促进的，这是一种将被研究的机制，其潜在的病理基础在这个系统中。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The human infant sleeps 16 hrs/day, 8 as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The amount of REM sleep decreases dramatically from birth until puberty. Our overall hypothesis is that if this developmental decrease in REM sleep does NOT occur, a lifelong increase in REM sleep drive may ensue. Increased REM sleep drive is present in such disorders of hypervigilance as schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and depression, which have a predominantly developmental etiology. The main region controlling arousal and sleep is the reticular activating system (RAS), and the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN), its cholinergic arm, helps generate REM sleep via its projections to various targets. One target, the SubCoeruleus nucleus (SubC), is known to manifest P-waves, paroxysmal wavefronts of activity thought to lead to the transition from slow wave sleep into REM sleep. The proposed studies will investigate the development of cholinergic input to the SubC, and the ability of the PPN to drive SubC cells during the developmental decrease in REM sleep in the rat, which occurs between 10 and 30 days postnatally. We hypothesize that P-waves may be facilitated by gap Junctions, a mechanism that will be studied for its potential to underlie pathology in this system.